"Colour your life" holiday programme ends...

the holiday programme ended today... it was bittersweet.

There was satisfaction of how the programme went, how it held the space, and worked the seeming magic of art therapy. There were some feelings of relief ebbed in to finally be done of so much hard work and constant emotional, physical, and spiritual challenges. there were feelings of loss and sadness to know that i will probably never see these energetic, crazy, frustrating and emotionally wounded survivors that i have come to love. The photovoice project went well this week and i am honored to have been able to hear the many stories of their lives that these photos evoked.

This group LOVED photos. to take them. to see themselves. to be in them. Shoot me!! they would scream. Let me shoot you!! they would ask in desperate awe to push the silver clicking button and see the picture appear before their eyes. Giggles of delight would usually erupt as four of their closest friends would descend to see the newest addition to the screen.

Funding came through with a lot of hard work, hundreds of calls and emails later - we were able to serve stews, hot dogs, pap and stew, chicken, veggies, beef, fruit, and juice to these guys. There was a huge physical change in their appearance as they received good nutrition and used their endless energy to run off whatever they were dealing with on the playground. Sport therapy I suppose you would call it.

Goodbye little friends. May this time have offered healing in whatever way it reached you and i hope you will be back for the next holiday time to continue this process of the heart.

As one boy put it, i hope you "hear the paint""Every good painter paints what he is." -Jackson Pollock

Slang you've got to knowwwww

howzit? - typical greeting
end all things in 'hey' when you'd like someone to agree with you
Danke - afrikaans for thank you
weg - street name ending. Afrikaans for street
hectic - used like "cool"
shattered - exhausted (I was absolutely shattered last night)
the boot - car trunk
robots - traffic lights (take a left at the robot)
springbok - refers to the animal (which is delish) OR can refer to the south african rugby team.
All Whites and all Blacks - don't confuse them especially among australian/newzealander friends.... FYI.
"eesh" - many meanings depending on the inflection you say it in.
Pap - reminds me of stiff grits, served with a stew, eat with fingers
Shoot me! - take a picture (used by little kids)
brilliant - equal to good. brilliant play!
Keen - are you guys keen?
pitch- show up. (she didn't pic

world cup fever - lots of photos for ya

I would like to thank my dear friend Tally for working her magic and for Visa for being a lovely FIFA sponsor..... so thank you for allowing me to be apart of the crazy world cup fever that has literally taken over every street corner...THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!

Game 2: USA vs Slovenia (yup that's the one where we were robbed of that goal...you know)

Me and Tally at the Spain/chile game
famous people come to these types of events...

ya never know who tries to hand out a yellow card... Lauren, our waitor, tally, and me with a bunch of fun visa peeps watching the england game at Melrose Arch after the USA game.

GAME 3: Brazil vs Coite d ivoire it was at soccer city - amazing...

sorry hayley has those photos... went with her fam. =)

GAME 4: spain vs Chile

Ames came up from the boonies (love you!) and we went with the visa gals.

(who luckily got to go to the USA game on wednesday

and ended up partying it up with the USA team and their families!! lucky!!) anyways we met up with the girls at their hotel and rode in the sponsor cars to the stadium with parking permits. (bless you for not doing park n rides!)

Me and Ames at the game, VERY thrilled and thankful for our visa friends and surprised us with new tickets which included a suite and all the perks that go with it!! This is richard, our new friend - Ames taught him how to play the vuvuzela.
Chile fans were by far the most excited

more random excited fans The official world cup song - i hear this 20 times a day!!!

Tourista

took a tour with some australian volunteers:

saw mandela's house, peterson memorial, part of soweto, ate pap and stew, apartheid museum,

and ended the evening watching Bafana Bafana on tv. random photos for you.

Walls

I walked around this morning enjoying the beautiful weather. The breeze was cool and the sun was warm, this kind of winter I like. It has been brutally cold and windy this week since it snowed in the cape. There are some shops about 15 minutes away and I’ve noticed about 5 churches nearby. There is an Anglican church, Christian scientist, Coptic something church, a Presbyterian and a Lutheran church. I went to the Lutheran church since it seemed the most welcoming (and they had a sign outside announcing a contemporary service at 10:30). So as I followed the sidewalk around to the parking lot, alongside the large barred metal fence with points like spears at the top, I finally found the entrance. The parking lot was empty save for about 4 cars. One older woman with a fuzzy purple hat was chatting with another woman who was sitting in her red hatchback car. I worked up my courage and ignored the awkward feelings as I walked towards them and asked if the services were finished for the day. Her name was Dawn and the other woman was Irene. They were kind sisters who were quite welcoming and instantly invited me back next week. Apparently they only have a 9:00 service during winter break. They tried to see if any of the youth were still around for me to meet but they’d all gone by this point. It was such a relief to be treated so kindly and as if I came there all the time. They insisted I return next week and they will be looking for me. Dawn laughed and told me that this morning’s sermon was on foreigners and here I was! At any rate I was thankful and I will hopefully see them next Sunday.
I stopped at this organic coffee shop on my way back, I enjoyed a lovely double latte with a heart on top and my gluten free spinach and sun dried tomato muffin. All the while Norah Jones played in the background with the décor owing little to African flare. I forget where I live sometimes and what country for that matter.

I walked home listening to the leaves fluttering, dogs barking, and the buzz of electricity from the tops of the high walls that lined the street. I laughed as I passed a sign that read armed response with the security company’s logo on top. The sign below it said bicycle patrolled. I had a funny image of a little security guard pedaling hard with a rifle on his back towards the house as the alarm went off and wondered if this was a true threat to thieves.

Then my heart just got really sad. There are those that have soo much, myself included, while there are those who have nothing. The more you have the bigger the walls it seems. To live your life behind such huge walls, keeping everything out – is it not just perpetuating a cycle of fear under the façade of safety? To visit Soweto, and see the one room shacks with no electricity to fuel a heater in the winter and here I am wandering around safely in this extravagant neighborhood with multilevel homes and enough electricity to not only keep the whole thing warm but to fuel their high fences as well. I just feel sick.

I don't want my life to be a wall with high concrete slabs and menacing shock to anyone who comes near. May i be open and approachable to everyone i meet, no matter where they come from or what they look like.

May they be loved and feel loved.

an aussie outing...

This week was exciting for the kids, Luke Wilkshire, who plays for australia's socceroos currently competing in the world cup,

came by to spend some time with the kids. THey began working on the mural that will be finished in the next few weeks. It is a combination of art and therapy. The kids will complete an activity called body mapping. They will out line their bodies on the wall and then it is up to them on how to decorate the inside. It is an exploration of how they view themselves and what is going on internally.

Luke was the first to go. Then the kids ended up helping him decorate.

He gave out hats and t-shirts, signed autographs, and gave away soccer balls...

but then he did something that made him lose points.

A LOT of points... he gave out vuvuzelas.

In the words of one of my friends... these are the horns of hades....

Simba??

here, kitty kitty.... i was petting him but he tried to bite my hand off and since i like my limbs attached...i stopped.

But he was still really cute. =) sharp teeth and all. zebras are so cool.Exactly.
this was scary - way too close for my comfort!!!

For my fanatical futbol friends....A special dedication to josh, doug, and ben

It is true what they say.... it really is who you know. My fantastic friend Tally, who i met right before i came out is working for Visa this summer in joburg. Saturday night was the USA vs England game in Rustenburg. She had an extra ticket so i joined the girls for a night out on the town... well Rustenburg that is. It was a really pretty drive - about 2 hours outside of Johannesburg. Parts of it reminded me a lot of san fran which made me really happy. =) We got a great view of a true African sunset. The traffic wasn't bad at all until we got close to the new stadium, but thanks to Visa and our parking passes, we didn't have to park and ride but got to park right outside the stadium.

(that is after we finally found the right area - the signage was horrendous!so we made a lot of loops and uturns. Always an adventure, haha.)We had 3 americans, 1 australian, 1 south african, and one from Japan. We represented!

I don't think i have ever truly appreciated soccer until i saw this game -

it was so fun and the fans made it so intense and crazy.

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And a special dedication to my soccer boys:

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